With a weekend filled with such diversity from Tom Petty to Jay-Z to the infinite Coldplay, the experience was absolutely mind-blowing. Artists were excited to be there, ticket-buyers were ecstatic, and even with the stresses of the weekend the organizers were happy and proud with the historical event they had just produced.

Pemberton, BC
July 25-27
Article By: Amanda Waschuk (Calgary Correspondent - Canada)  
Links By: Xanthe Couture (Edmonton Correspondent - Canada)
Photographs By: Amanda Waschuk, Jill Angelstad, Xanthe Couture 

Attendees of the inaugural Pemberton Music Festival were welcomed by hordes of people trying to shuttle bus to the grounds, bag searches for prohibited items like drugs, alcohol, and potatoes, and a cloud of dust from the site's previous occupation of a hay field.  But this can all be overlooked because of the surreal journey of music and entertainment that's to come.  With acts like Coldplay, Tom Petty, and Nine Inch Nails headlining the weekend, it's hard to stay in a bad mood for long.

The producers of the show, Live Nation, host 30 festivals worldwide (mainly in Europe) and are a Los Angeles based company.  Shane Bourbonnais (President of Touring and Business Development for Live Nation Canada) was given the task to bring the tradition of the summer music festival to Canada and chose the small, 2500 person town of Pemberton to be the host.   

As word of this Canadian music festival spread, Coldplay became the first band signed on to be a part of this ground-breaking event.  Being the band of the moment, this attracted a majority of the other acts who actually contacted Live Nation to join the lineup.  It turns out there were more bands wanting to play than the weekend could accommodate and the final line up consisted of over 120 artists between two stages and two performance tents. 

The main stage "Mount Currie" had booked its artists first, including big acts like Sam Roberts , Interpol , N.E.R.D., Death Cab For Cutie and Vampire Weekend.  The next task for Bourbonnais was to decide who to put on the "Lillooet" stage.  The picking process was done by determining who had the potential to play the main "Mount Currie" stage in the following years.  The talented up and comers who made the cut included The Secret Machines, Carolina Liar, Inward Eye, Black Mountain, Wintersleep , and many more. 

The main stage didn't come to life until 3:30pm everyday, when the first headliner began.  But there were many other activities on site to occupy your time.  "Guitar Hero" and "SingStar" provided video games to entertain while Rogers provided a tent with the chance to charge your phone while also handing out free stuff.  The Kid Zone was fun for the rare child that attended, including face painting and a blow-up bouncy castle among other activities.  There were also many vendors selling food (at ridiculous prices!), clothing and jewelry while local farmers sold their produce in the Farmers Market.

As a tribute to the artists of Pemberton, there was the "Art Walk" and "The Barn Dance." The Art Walk was a majestic trail located in the forest behind the campsite where you could walk among mesmerizing lights and the beautiful artwork of locals.  The Barn Dance replaced the traditional music festival that Pemberton had put on for the last 12 years (normally taking place on this same weekend) and showcased local talent. 

The other tent was the Bacardi B-live tent filled with world-famous DJs and a few other artists such as Chromeo. The goal of this tent was to create "the biggest night club that we can in the middle of nowhere" said Shane Bourbonnais; which sounds like a great idea but with a night club comes rejection and some unhappy people who may be denied the show they came to see.

Molson beer was a sponsor of the festival and after having a charge of eight dollars per beer, prohibition of outside alcohol cannot have been expected to go down well.  Although lines to get into the beer gardens did exist, most people managed to smuggle in alcohol past the bag searches and openly walked the festival grounds with a beer/alcohol-filled water bottle in hand as they made their way to see some of the biggest names in music right now.  

The stage sound was impressively clear and loud, all the way to the campsites where tuned in ears who immediately knew when their favorite bands were starting.  Once the music began, it drew an impressive crowd all of which were trying to make their way to the front.  This resulted in a giant monster of a mosh pit that spit out random crowd surfers into the awaiting arms of security. Thankfully, those looking for a less violent experience could see the show from three large screens while safely hanging in the back. 

Day one saw Metric open the Mount Currie stage with a bang and expressiveness to how honored they were to open.  After a 45 minute set, Australian sensation Wolfmother took the stage.  They are well-known for their song "Woman" on video game Guitar Hero and more recently for "Joker and the Thief" on Rock Band (which was surprisingly not played during their show).  While other artists such as Kathleen Edwards and Secret Machines contributed to the Lillooet stage, the highlight of the evening was Nine Inch Nails .  Their stage set-up was something never done before as lights besieged the stage and at one point, a giant cage of lights separated the band from the fans.  But before the panic of not being able to see settled in, the area of lights around lead singer Trent Reznor turned off so he was visible and this opposite of a spotlight effect followed him wherever he went onstage.  The magnificence that was the stage did not distract from the flawless rock that poured from the stage as Reznor had perfect sounding vocals accompanied by a passionate band. 

The second day was just as effective with legend Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers closing the evening.  Also with an amazing stage set-up filled with screens so no fan could miss the show, Petty appeared Jesus-like with his long hair and beard and played many of his classics to the delight of the crowd.  Earlier in the day, Canadian prodigies The Tragically Hip took the stage along with Sam Roberts Band and My Morning Jacket.  Known for their crazy concert experience, The Flaming Lips did not disappoint as confetti and giant balloons (one filled with lead singer Wayne Coyne) rained down on the crowd and teletubbies littered the stage.  The eclectic performance suits their music as it consists of random lyrics and an original sound.

Any exhaustion that may have set in by the final day of the festival was completely removed and replaced with the contagious energy of Pharrell, lead member of hit group N.E.R.D..  Starting half an hour late due to traffic problems, Pharrell rebelled on stage stating he was going to play his whole set to the aggravation of the festival organizers, and that he did.  The non-stop dancing of Pharrell was reproduced when two male fans were brought onstage to join him.  This amped up the crowd as the rocked along to club hits like "Everyone Nose" until "She Wants to Move" when he pulled up about 30 girls who wanted to move.  Pharell's enthusiasm for his fans didn't stop here.  At the end of his set (already gone way past the scheduled time), he went down to the gates holding back eager fans and ran back and forth high-fiving everyone.   

Sunday was a day that merged the crowd and artists into one world as the bands made things personal.  After N.E.R.D. made this a literal fact by pulling fans onstage during his performance, Jay-Z performed a stellar show of remixed rap and classic hits while making sure the crowd knew he was paying attention by giving a shout-out to random people in the crowd.  And Coldplay even changed some of the lyrics to their songs to relate to experiences from the weekend, singing "when the festival traffic moves at a snail's pace" in "Fix You."

As they closed the weekend, Coldplay did something that no other band had done yet.  They performed on a stage right in the middle of a 30,000 person plus crowd.  This caused the stampede of fans who had been camped out in the back and previously only able to see the band on the big screen.  This impromptu stage gave every single person the chance to see the explosive performance by Coldplay right before their eyes.

When asking those who attended the festival who their favorite act was, the majority had a difficult time choosing just one.  With a weekend filled with such diversity from Tom Petty to Jay-Z to the reggae singing Jewish Rabbi Matisyahu, the experience was absolutely mind-blowing.  Artists were excited to be there, ticket-buyers were ecstatic, and even with the stresses of the weekend the organizers were happy and proud with the historical event they had just produced. 

The Monday came with expectations of a difficult departure, but this didn't damper the spirits of the campers as they all screamed "see you next year!" on their way out.  With many lessons to be learned, Live Nation can still call this year a major success setting the milestone for the years to come.